When it comes to internet mysteries, it's Reddit to the rescue! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most intriguing enigmas that were fully, or at least partially, unraveled by amateur sleuths on Reddit.
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00:00The work that I'm doing in a legal setting would be considered the work of an expert witness.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most intriguing enigmas
00:10that were fully or at least partially unraveled by amateur sleuths on Reddit.
00:14Cicada 3301 says those who solve the puzzles can join the secretive organization.
00:19There have now been three puzzles, each on January 4th.
00:24Number 20. Room 322 at the Hotel Zaza.
00:28In 2013, one Redditor shared pictures from Room 322 at Hotel Zaza in Houston, Texas,
00:34where their friend had stayed.
00:35The room's unsettling decor included a bed chained to the wall,
00:39a creepy portrait of a finance executive, and what looked suspiciously like a two-way mirror.
00:44Naturally, the internet went wild, with some speculating that it had ties to
00:48occult rituals or secret fraternities, while others shrugged it off as a marketing scam.
00:54One curious Redditor decided to book the room for a closer look,
00:57only to discover that 322 was merely a jail-themed novelty lodge.
01:01And behind that two-way mirror? Just a bathroom to the space next door.
01:06Needless to say, that made for a rather underwhelming conclusion.
01:20Number 19. The 432 Mystery.
01:23This online enigma first popped up on 4chan, but as with most things on the internet,
01:28it eventually found its way to Reddit.
01:30It all began with a cryptic email telling the recipient they had been selected and were being
01:35watched. It also included a link to a strange website full of puzzles and nonsensical messages.
01:47While this was strange enough, it took an even weirder turn when the site's admin began posting
01:52personal details of the sleuths trying to crack the case.
01:55Then, just as suddenly, the admin vanished and the Reddit sub discussing the case was banned.
02:01Many now conclude the whole thing was an elaborate hoax,
02:04designed purely to troll curious netizens.
02:07Number 18. The Seatoka Commercial Song.
02:15Ever had a tune lodge itself in your brain and simply refuse to leave?
02:19Well, that was exactly the case for one Redditor in 2015.
02:23They had stumbled upon a commercial for the Ibiza Toka by Spanish car manufacturer Seat
02:27and were instantly hooked on the background song.
02:29But no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't find out the title of the track.
02:34Their desperation even led them to email the company,
02:37only to be told that the music was created specifically for the ad.
02:41When all seemed lost, they turned to Reddit.
02:43Oddly enough, a random user messaged them out of nowhere with the song title and artist,
02:48bringing a year-long mystery to an amusing end.
02:51Don't miss out, Seat.
02:54Number 17. 11BX1371.
03:04This eerie video began causing a stir online in October 2015.
03:08Featuring a masked figure wearing a plague doctor costume,
03:11the clip was packed with hidden messages, buzzing sounds, and disturbing imagery.
03:19Once it made its way to Reddit, the online sleuths wasted no time.
03:23They decoded several messages, including texts and images tucked inside a sound spectrogram.
03:28To make things weirder, the video hinted at biological warfare
03:32and even contained an anagram that spelled out,
03:34Kill the President.
03:35While many of the messages were deciphered, the video's origin remained uncertain.
03:40However, during the investigation, the name Parker Wright kept popping up
03:44and months later, the video was released.
03:46A man going by that name eventually owned up to making the video as an art project.
03:51Number 16. Mysterious Metal Cylinder.
04:00Over the years, mysterious objects have washed up on beaches around the world,
04:05sparking confusion and curiosity among locals.
04:08In 2023, the residents of Greenhead, a coastal town in Australia,
04:12got their turn when they stumbled upon a gigantic metal cylinder on the shore.
04:16The mysterious object fueled excitement and wild speculation,
04:20but hardly anyone, not even the police, could figure out exactly what it was.
04:24That is, until it got on Reddit, where it caught the attention of amateur detectives.
04:29Shortly after the post was made, one user correctly identified it
04:32as the third stage of a polar satellite launch vehicle released by India.
04:36This was later confirmed by the Australian Space Agency,
04:40proving once again that Reddit knows everything.
04:51Number 15. Unfavorable Semicircle.
05:02Not even the most prolific YouTubers could keep up with the upload rate of Unfavorable Semicircle.
05:08The channel was created in March 2015 and quickly gained attention
05:12for flooding the internet with thousands of bizarre videos.
05:15These clips varied in length, but they all featured blurry visuals
05:18and occasionally a distorted male voice reading letters or numbers.
05:29It did not take long for Reddit to take an interest.
05:32Two of the videos, titled Lock and Delock, particularly intrigued users.
05:37Leading one to combine their frames,
05:39which produced a decipherable image that brought them closer to solving the puzzle.
05:44Ultimately, this online sleuthing prompted the anonymous creator to step forward in 2022,
05:49revealing it was all an outsider art project.
05:59If you received a random CD today with noise music on it
06:02and an album art plastered with website links,
06:05you'd probably just throw it in the trash without a second thought.
06:08But when that happened to one Reddit user in 2013,
06:11they decided to post it on the site and ask for advice.
06:14Soon, what started as a simple curiosity ballooned into a complex mystery.
06:19People began investigating the CD and uncovered GPS coordinates that led them to an old factory.
06:24Then, a mysterious creature began making strange posts on the subreddit,
06:29engaging with those trying to crack the case.
06:31It all turned out to be a publicity stunt for an album
06:34by a Tampa-based performance noise act called Nequam Sanitas.
06:50Nothing fires up the mind of an online sleuth like a set of encrypted codes begging to be solved.
06:54So when a Reddit user began posting random codes with no explanation,
06:58those amateur detectives quickly got to work.
07:01The effort took years and several heads coming together,
07:04but sure enough, the Redditors decoded every last one.
07:08You'd think that after such a grueling journey,
07:11the message would be worth the wait, right?
07:13Well, nope.
07:14Turns out the person behind it all was just a bored teenager practicing their coding skills.
07:18So no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow,
07:21but at least it definitely kept them busy.
07:29The Box of Crazy
07:30Redditors have pretty much seen it all.
07:32So when they call something the Box of Crazy, you know it's next level.
07:36Back in 2013, someone found a mysterious box left by the trash.
07:41So their friend brought it to Reddit's army of pseudo-detectives.
07:44The contents of this box were mind-boggling.
07:47They ranged from hand-drawn maps to non-patented illustrations
07:50to even sketches of UFOs and strange creatures that looked straight out of the Bible.
07:55You name it, it was in there.
07:56Redditors managed to trace the box to a man named Daniel Christensen,
08:00who died a few years earlier at 96.
08:13It's still unknown how the box ended up in the trash,
08:16but it was likely tossed out after its owner's passing.
08:20Nail Through Wood
08:27Just looking at the picture in this entry will have you scratching your head,
08:32like it did for thousands of Redditors when it first popped up.
08:35The image shows a block of wood divided into four sections,
08:38with a nail driven clean through the middle two without touching the edges.
08:42How's that possible, you ask?
08:43Well, it left many baffled until one Redditor dropped a video revealing the trick.
08:48Simply soak the end of the block in boiling water to soften it,
08:51compress it, and slide the nail through.
08:53Then, pop it back into the boiling water and surprisingly,
08:56the wood returns to its original size.
08:58Now, who's got the tutorial for squeezing a camel through the eye of a needle?
09:17Cicada 3301 is one of the internet's juiciest mysteries.
09:21It's seemingly a complex puzzle with the intent of recruiting
09:25the intelligent individuals who solve its various clues.
09:28The first puzzle appeared on message boards in 2012,
09:32and others appeared again in following years.
09:34The original puzzle focused primarily on aspects of data security and cryptography,
09:39leading most to speculate that the puzzle was some sort of recruitment tool
09:43for a government agency or anonymous internet mercenary group.
09:46Many of its intricate and complex clues have been cracked by collaborating Redditors,
09:51and some have claimed to have solved the entire puzzle,
09:54with a mysterious Reddit URL providing crucial clues along the way.
10:04No, Reddit did not figure out how our ancestors built Stonehenge.
10:08That mystery might never be solved.
10:11No, this Stonehenge is entirely digital.
10:14In July 2011, a Redditor opened a mysterious sub that consisted entirely of nonsensical text.
10:21Redditors quickly assumed it was a code dump,
10:23and thousands quickly got to work trying to figure out the meaning of the codes.
10:27One Redditor eventually cracked the code,
10:30finding a picture of England's famous Stonehenge in ASCII.
10:34Other smaller fragments of the text were decoded,
10:36but the larger meaning behind the sub and its various codes remains a mystery.
10:41Number 8. Webdriver Torso
10:43What's really interesting about these videos is they are all 11 seconds long.
10:47They're all of that format, but as far as we can tell, they're all slightly different.
10:50While mysterious text is one thing, creepy unexplained videos are something else.
10:55The Webdriver Torso videos started appearing on YouTube in 2013.
11:00They consisted of a white background, moving blue and red rectangles,
11:04and unsettling beeping noises.
11:06The channel quickly gained the attention of the Internet,
11:09with many speculating about its intended purpose.
11:12Some theories thrown out included a recruitment tool,
11:15spy messages, and, because this is the Internet, communication from aliens.
11:21Redditors quickly got to work, and an Italian blogger traced the account to Google.
11:26YouTube eventually admitted that they were behind the videos,
11:29and that they served as a testing mechanism for video quality.
11:33Number 7. The Bugged Extension Cord
11:36This one is sure to get the paranoid conspiracy theorists going.
11:39A poster by the rather fitting name of ShadyBusiness15 blew a fuse,
11:45and took apart his extension cord to assess the damage.
11:48He found what looked like a SIM card inside the cord,
11:51and posted a picture of the mysterious card to Reddit.
11:54Redditors quickly figured out that the chip was a listening device.
11:57Yep, ShadyBusiness15.
11:59If you called the SIM card's number,
12:01you could listen to what the device was recording.
12:04ShadyBusiness15 called the number, but found the service closed.
12:08The mystery of what the device was was solved.
12:11Why his room was bugged, was not.
12:14Number 6. The $50 Cipher
12:17Ciphers can be fun.
12:19This one, however, is a bit of a mystery.
12:21After all, it's not the first time we've seen a $50 cipher.
12:25Number 6. The $50 Cipher
12:28Ciphers can be fun.
12:29This one, not so much.
12:31One Redditor was allegedly given a $50 bill,
12:34and a secret code while walking the streets.
12:37He posted the mysterious markings to Reddit,
12:39and the users quickly figured out that it was something called a bifid cipher.
12:43The cracked code read,
12:45quote,
12:45There's plenty more money to make.
12:48Figure this out and prepare to meet.
12:50However, the poster also got another code chastising him for getting help,
12:54and he was allegedly threatened.
12:56Theories range about the meaning of the text,
12:59including links to the Department of Defense,
13:01planning a Reddit meetup,
13:02a hoax drummed up by the poster,
13:04and a marketing ploy.
13:06Number 5. The Case of Jason Callahan
13:10On June 26th, 1995,
13:13a hitchhiker was killed in a car crash,
13:15and quickly earned the moniker,
13:17Grateful Doe,
13:18due to his unconfirmed identity,
13:20and Grateful Dead tickets.
13:22Years later,
13:23a Redditor opened a Grateful Doe sub,
13:25and circulated reconstructed images of the deceased.
13:29The image eventually caught the attention of the deceased's mother,
13:32who said it was her son, Jason Callahan.
13:35Callahan looked a lot like the reconstructed image,
13:37and went missing in 1995,
13:40while following the Grateful Dead on tour.
13:42An investigation was opened,
13:44and a DNA test was finally done on the unidentified man.
13:47After 20 years,
13:49Callahan was found.
13:51Number 4. The Hit-and-Run
13:56Hit-and-runs are the worst,
13:58but fear not,
13:59Reddit is here to help.
14:01Reddit user Meatheaded witnessed a hit-and-run accident,
14:04and posted a picture of the broken off headlight to the sub,
14:07r slash what is this thing.
14:09Hundreds of car aficionados worked together,
14:12and traced the headlight to a grey 1990 Cadillac Brougham.
14:15The poster later discovered that a grey Cadillac Brougham
14:18had been reported stolen in the area.
14:20A man was then linked by police to the stolen car,
14:23and was charged with auto theft,
14:25and several traffic-related crimes.
14:34Number 3. The Strongsville Jane Doe
14:37And here we have Reddit helping yet another cold case.
14:40Back in the 70s,
14:41a group of kids came across a body.
14:43The case was cold for 40 long, long years,
14:47until a sleuthing Redditor came across the body's cemetery records,
14:51and autopsy report.
14:53After posting to Reddit,
14:54another poster copied the files to the site Websleuths.
14:57A forensic artist then got involved,
14:59and reconstructed the victim's face.
15:01The image bore a striking resemblance to a teenager named Linda Pagano,
15:05who had been missing since the mid-70s.
15:08While the bones haven't yet been officially matched to Pagano as of 2018,
15:13her siblings and Akron Sergeant Jeff Smith,
15:16strongly believe they will be a match.
15:18Number 2. Walter Scott and the Taser
15:21I can figure this out pretty quickly.
15:23Stabilize the footage,
15:24post it to Reddit,
15:26and shit goes bonkers.
15:29On April 4th, 2015,
15:31a man named Walter Scott was stopped for a broken brake light,
15:34and later shot in the back by police officer Michael Slager.
15:38The case made international headlines,
15:40and footage from a bystander's cell phone became a key piece of evidence.
15:45Redditor Daniel Voschart stabilized and cleared up the shaky footage.
15:49He found what looked like Scott obtaining and subsequently throwing Slager's taser.
15:53Voschart argues that Slager may not have seen Scott disposing of the taser.
15:57Voschart's story and potential discovery was later made into a documentary.
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16:31Number 1. The Mysterious Post-It Notes
16:35Sometimes Reddit can save a life.
16:37Literally.
16:38A poster by the name of rbradbury1920 posted to r slash legaladvice,
16:43as someone was leaving mysterious post-it notes around his apartment.
16:47He was suitably creeped out and asked the sub what to do.
16:51One Redditor suggested that he was writing the notes himself
16:54and forgetting due to possible carbon monoxide poisoning.
16:57The OP admitted that he'd been having terrible headaches,
17:00lived above the parking garage,
17:02and never plugged in his CO detector.
17:05After doing so,
17:06he found his apartment reading at 100 parts per million,
17:10indicating that he was indeed suffering from CO poisoning.
17:13He checked himself into a hospital,
17:15and user Cockerlock literally saved a life.
17:18Are you an ardent Redditor?
17:20What online mysteries have you helped solve?
17:22Let us know in the comments below.